Tuesday, 14 April 2009

Sheep silk

Posted by Helen I have been dyeing merino tops now for years firstly because I wanted to use naturally dyed merino tops myself in my own work then for my own workshops. I have had them for sale on my website but with a limited success mostly,I think, because the photography does not really do justice to the colours. However I have been selling more and more and getting lots of positive comments back so I have decided to have a big run at dyeing merino tops (I am so glad that I did not know till after I had been dyeing successfully fora number of years that -"you can't dye merino tops as they felt"). As my husband was working all over Easter I have had a free run in the studio. Apart form walking the dog in the glorious sunshine I have been happily dyeing and here are some of results.Over the years I have developed my own technique for dyeing these tops with minimum felting. I am very proud of them and just love the feel as I run my fingers through the wool. I dye a lot of the 18.5merinos which is the finest wool we can get here and what I use for stoles and scarves.I feel most envious of India Flints 15 micron merino. What must that feel like? The 18.5 micron merino feels, as a friend of mine describes it, as the nearest to sheep silk .

7 comments:

Those are stunning colours...Do you buy the wool in or have you a favfarmer who sells you unwashed wool. I'm looking into starting to dye and spin wool from the sheep and goats here on Crete.Baby steps though. My husband wants to look into using as many of the plants as we can for dyes. I'm following you quietly.

Helen, I haven't seen suppliers for 15 mic merino- but wollknoll in germany offers superfine merino with 16 mic! the prices are 32.73 euro (vat incl.) for 1-9 kg, from 10 kg onwards it's 30.75 euro (plus postage). don't know how the prices are down-under, but the postage must surely be far more? the link is www.wollknoll.eu, but I am not sure if it's available in english....

Thank you Anne-the orange is coreopsis Tinctoria with a touch of ammonia.Jude I buy my merino in 10 kilo bumps as washing and processing the wool to this state is very hard work. However the teeswater curls on the line I buy as fleece from the farmer.What are the fibres on Crete like? Thank you for following too-it is always nice to meet followers of the blog.Bettina thank you so much -I could rush over to Dublin to kiss you ! :) This I will have to investigate! I have a friend coming to stay in a months time who is half German and speaks it fluently I will get her to do the translation!

wonderful colours Helen, I love the teal blue shades...are you mordanting separately? that I find is the trickiest, if I mordant and dye the merino roving in one bath I have no felting, but seems the more I handle it the more chance of it getting slightly felted...I am impressed....